Contextual Studies - Gender

This mornings contextual lecture was based on gender and equality within male and female members of society. Throughout history, there has definitely always been more male photographer (at least who are famous) than female. There are many reasons why this could be the case including the opportunities men get over women and the way men 'traditionally' live their lives against women. A good example of male photographers being more prominent is Julia Margaret Cameron. She was a photographer who worked mainly around the 1860s and 1880s with classical romance scenes. Even though she worked so long ago, her work has only become somewhat famous over the past 60 year. Around the 1950s her work became more and more famous and it was out in the open to more people as the years have gone on. Her work was regularly base on the gender gap and equality which could be why it wasn't so popular back when it was created.

Photographers Who Represent Equality

Tina Modotti - an Italian photographer, actress, model and revolutionary political activist who worked within the 1900s. She is one of the most famous female photographers who I know as I have previously done a project about her. I find her work highly interesting as it captures a lot of stereotypes within gender. The piece below is all about male workers in 1926 and the 'typical' male lifestyle and work. All of the figures in the image are men and it outlines the devide between men and women in worklife and the large population of male workers.

The photo below represents the complete opposite. It represents the way females are seen within the world (in that era anyhow). This photo shows how the female population were seen as the housewives in a way. They didn't have 'normal' paid jobs but instead housework and familywork - cleaning, cooking, collecting goods, looking after children etc - which is what has been changing over the years. The photo below shows a woman holding a bowl full of goods on her head - most probably collecting them from a market or a street stall.

Lewis Hine - an American sociologist and photographer who's photographs helped change the child labor laws in the United States. He worked in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. He often worked undercover in places he shouldn't have been such as sweat shops, slave camps and other work places. The photograph below is a piece he took when undercover in a workplace. He took this photo of this male worker to represent how hard men in that era worked. A lot of his work was based on males and their role as well as children within slavery and the work force.

Annie Liebovitz - an American portrait photographer who has done various collections of work with some of the biggest names in celebrity history. Her career started whe she was employed to work for the Rolling Stone. She has become one of the biggest female photographers of the past 40 years and still is a household name. One of her pieces which I highly admire is the piece which she created in response to the Lewis Hine piece above. She didn't agree with what he was trying to portray so she recreated it in a more commercial, current way. She used the same sort of layout but within the character she changed a fair amount more. She used a female model instead of a male to represent females in the work industry. She kept the idea of a strong musclely character as a woman can have the same body structure just the same. The character seems to be dooing a similar job as the man which is just showing equality within gender.